“Yes.” She closed one box and opened another. “Well, they were written in Rome but were sent to a California Franciscan. So they should be in here. All my Mission correspondence—I just… can’t…” She sighed. “This is driving me crazy. I’ve been looking for hours.”
It really was too bad that he hadn’t skipped the meeting with the impossible vampire and come home hours ago. “My love, I think I know the letters you’re speaking of.”
“I know!” Beatrice threw up her hands, and they landed on her hips. “I remember cataloguing them last fall. They should be in this box, but they aren’t.”
“Well…”
“Gio?” She must have caught the look on his face. “What did you do with my letters?”
“They were written from Rome.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, but they were written to a priest in California. Clearly, they needed to be with the Mission letters.”
“One could argue”—he cleared his throat—“they were more properly filed with Vatican correspondence. Since they were written from the Vatican.”
Beatrice’s mouth dropped open. “You did not.”
He shrugged. “You were in the middle of some research with Lucien, and I was having a number of things transferred to the Perugian library, so—”
“Gio, you didn’t!” Her hands gripped her hair. “You sent my letters to Fina?”
The library that Giovanni’s deceased son had established in Perugia had continued to be run by Serafina Rossi, the human Lorenzo hired to curate the collection in his absence. She truly was a very competent human who had proven to be trustworthy, despite having been chosen by his scheming son. Gradually, Giovanni and Beatrice had enlightened Fina and her son, Enzo, about the immortal world they’d been dragged into unawares. Both had come under Giovanni’s protection, and he did not take the responsibility lightly. Plus, Fina was a superb archivist with a background in art history.
“The Perugia library has far more room than this one, Tesoro. And you know I’ve been transferring materials there when they fit the collection—”
“But they’re not Vatican letters! They’re Mission letters! I cannot believe you lost my materials—”
He drew up, slightly offended. “I did not ‘lose’ them. They remain catalogued here, and I put a notation in the files that they were being stored in Perugia with the Vatican papers there.”
Slightly mollified, Beatrice stopped yelling, but her angry expression did not wane.
“You took Mission letters.”
“I took Vatican letters.”
“Sent to a mission. My mission.”
He bit back a laugh. “I do not believe you have a greater claim than the church, my love.”
“And I know there’s a reference in those letters to this journal or book about wine-making that the Hungarian wants. And it’s all the way in Perugia! And I can’t ask Fina to dig through all that stuff—”
“There is no ‘digging’ necessary.” He felt his skin heat in anger. “Beatrice, you’re acting as if I threw them in a cardboard box and tossed them in a suitcase. I would never—”
“You’re right.” Her expression softened. “You’re right. That was out of line. You would never treat original documents that way.”
“Thank you.” He was still a bit put out. To think she’d accuse him of being that careless…
“Well,” she said. “There’s really only one thing to do.”
“What?”
Her frown turned to an impish grin. “Clearly, we’re spending Christmas in Italy this year.”
Christmas in Italy? Away from both of their families and all their employees?
Giovanni tugged Beatrice to him, and her silk-covered hands came up to brush his cheeks as he took her mouth in a lingering kiss.
“What a truly”—he nipped Beatrice’s lips and pulled her toward the low couches at one end of the room—“truly excellent idea.”
“I know.” She grabbed his perfectly pressed dress shirt and tore the buttons off as she pulled it open. “I’m brilliant that way.”
His fangs dropped as he licked up her neck, murmuring, “Buon natale to me.”
“Wait!” She pulled away from his kiss. “Is Italy one of those countries that doesn’t exchange presents until January?”
“Yes, January sixth. The Epiphany.”
“No!”
“You’ll survive. Now kiss me.”
Look for Lost Letters and Christmas Lights in
ALL THE STARS LOOK DOWN
by Elizabeth Hunter and Grace Draven
Now available in e-book at all major retailers
Read the books that launched a fictional universe:
THE ELEMENTAL MYSTERIES
A Hidden Fire
This Same Earth
The Force of Wind
A Fall of Water
The Elemental Mysteries, where history and the paranormal collide, and where no secret stays hidden forever. Join five hundred-year-old rare book dealer, Giovanni Vecchio, and librarian, Beatrice De Novo, as they travel the world in search of the mystery that brought them together, the same mystery that could tear everything they love apart.
"Elemental Mysteries turned into one of the best paranormal series I've read this year. It's sharp, elegant, clever, evenly paced without dragging its feet and at the same time emotionally intense." —NOCTURNAL BOOK REVIEWS
"An enticing and addictive epic." —Douglas C. Meeks, WICKED SCRIBES
"A tantalyzing paranormal romance, full of mystery and intrigue. One of the best books I've read in a long time. Sign me up for book two!”—Nichole Chase, NYT bestselling author of The Dark Betrayal Trilogy
Available at all major retailers
Shadows and Gold
Copyright © 2014
Elizabeth Hunter
ISBN: 978-1-941674-02-4
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art: Damonza
Edited: Victory Editing
Formatted: Elizabeth Hunter
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